what beauty salon do you go to, Dorka's?

Wow...so you'd think that after being here a month we'd be running out of things to do, but no siree! I'm worried I'm not going to be able to get everything done in 4 months that I want to do! I started my salsa classes with Carlos, my teacher. He's almost too gay to function, but the nicest guy ever! He teaches salsa all over the world and trains people for competetion and everything, so he's really good! I went to the market and got some ripped off salsa CD and I practice every night in our little foyer thing upstairs with my headphones. It doesn't look so cool, let's just say. Okay so yesterday was one of the most fun days ever! We went to work at the clinic but the doctor wasn't there (this is Guatemala, they call her if someone shows up) so we walked around Jocotenango, this little dirty town, and visited one of our teachers at her house. Then we went to the stadium place and played soccer with these little boys (10-12 years old) for seriously hours! There was no grass, just dust, and I've seriously never sweated so bad in my life, but it was so amazing. There was this one kid, Diego, who was seriously so good. Like he will be famous, I promise. Let's see if I can remember all their names: Alejandro, Hugo, Herman, Gary, Diego...crap I can't remember any more, but seriously they were so much fun! One time Hannah shot on goal and I seriously booked it towards the ball and threw my body in front of it and the tips of my fingers blocked the ball...it was the greatest moment of my life. We promised them we'd play with them every Friday. This morning I went to Dorka's beauty salon (just because it's called Dorka's and I laugh everytime I walk by) and got an amazing body scrub and hour massage for 20 bucks! I feel like a new human! Then this afternoon Kala and I went to this super nice hotel to see if we could sneak into the pool...without luck. Man, we had our suits and everything! Dang. We're in the process of planning our Semana Santa (Spring Break) trip. I think we're going to Monterrico (which is on the Pacific Coast) for a few days and then a few of us are going to this tiny fishing town and learning to surf. It's like $3 a night to sleep in a hammock. How sweet is that? The surfing lessons are really cheap too and I've wanted to learn how to surf my whole life. There's not way I'm gonna have the abs or the upper body to do it though. Meh! To be perfectly honest with you I'm getting a little frusterated with the rules down here. I know they're trying to protect us, but seriously SI (Students International) and Lindsey (the Bethel grad in charge of us) are so overprotective. I know how to be safe and I don't drink (I've never been drunk in my life) but I feel like I'm being treated like a four year old. We can't climb volcanoes, we can't go to clubs, we have to be in every night by 10, we can't go anywhere without 24 hour notice given to the SI staff and having them look into every detail. Seriouly I'm 20 years old. Sorry, I just get frusterated sometimes. I called my momma to ask her what to do and we decided that as long as I don't blatently break the rules (cuz either I'll get caught or I'll feel so guilty I'll tell on myself), but instead just try to have as much fun within them as we can. I can do that. We've found some cute restaurants/bars with live music (not dance clubs!) and other places to go at night. This upcoming week is our last week of classes so our medical fair is on Friday. It should be cool, we're doing a bunch of different health stations (checking vision, hearing, checking for lice, height/weight etc.) and I'm giving a talk to the kids on hygiene. So yeah, then next week it's off to the real clinic work! I'm so pumped about that you have no idea. Well that's about all I have to report. It's calmed down a lot around the house since Rusty and Tanya left...I miss them so much. Seriously they were my parents here (Rusty even let me play with his elbow skin and Tanya kissed me on the lips!). Thanks for the emails and snail mail, it really makes my day...and when I say day I mean week! Keep me posted on everything that's going on in the Land of the Free.

Back from the Black Sand!

Wow, we just got back from the most amazing weekend ever! We drove down to San Jose, this town on the South/West Pacific coast on Saturday morning and stayed in this amazing 5 star resort. Seriously the most beautiful place ever. We had a huge suite for 6 of us girls (Me, Kala, Molly, Hannah, Amy, and Laura) with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 bathrooms, 3 balconies...wow! The resort had amazing buffets for every meal, unlimited drinks (of course non-alcoholic!), 2 pools, hammocks, a bunch of bars, a theater, 2 restaurants, a river for like fishing and stuff, everything! But the coolest part was the black sand beach. I'd never seen it before, and it got REALLY hot, but I wasn't complaining. The water was amazing and we played in the waves for hours and hours. The riptide is super strong there and one time Amy and I were out swimming where we couldn't touch (which isn't recommended) and our friend Gonzalo (this old local man we met on the beach) came running over when he saw us and told us to get out cuz it was so dangerous. It was a lot harder to get in than we thought it would be, but I'm here safe and sound. I'm still finding sand in my hair and ears! Ok I said the black sand was the best part but I lied, the best part was...deep breath...fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams...HORSEBACK RIDING ON THE BEACH!!! Yes, it's true! Kala and I went cantering down the beach for like miles. It was amazing (except the stirrup fell off one when we were way far away, but that didn't stop me from cantering!) We tried to get the horses to go in the water but they didn't want to. I can't even describe how amazing it was, we were like flying! K sorry I'm gushing now. Other than that we had some praise and worship in our suite after dinner, it's fun, we're learning a lot of P&W songs in Spanish. I actually got quite a bit of sun, and most of it isn't red sun! Hooray! It's hilarious though since we had to wear one pieces my stomach is still like blindingly white! Meh...whatever! Miss y'all and can't wait to see my family!

The Moksta

Ole!

Not sure why this is titled Ole...it just is (that's like O-lay Spanish style not like Ole the big Swede). Let's see, classes still going so well! Got a 97% on my test on Friday, have another one tomorrow, let's see if I can beat that! We had the cutest party for Valentine's Day at my house! Doche (cute little Guatemalan girl who lives with us) decorated with balloons (globos) and confetti (pica pica) and it was so cute. Rusty cooked (he's taken culinary classes and is seriously amazing) so we had this amazing pasta with wine sauce and garlic bread and salad and mmm!! Yummy! I even did dishes...how proud are you!?!? Although Emily it was wierd doing dishes without you my love! I'm all confused because this is the second time I've written this entry (the first one got deleted somehow) so I can't really remember what I've written and what I haven't. I can't remember if I wrote about church on Sunday or not...I'll just do it again! We took the chicken bus (local) into Guatemala City and went to this huge mega-church called El Shaddai. It was really cool (over 3 hours long though) but VERY charismatic! There was crazy dancing and tongues and a huge crowd of people that went up to "receive the Spirit" kinda. It was wierd cuz we were in the bookstore after and my roommate pulled out this book and it was "Que Sucede Cuando Horamos Para Nuestras Familias" or as you might know it "What Happens When We Pray for Our Families" by my very own grandma! Pretty funny seeing my face on the back cover of a book in a church in Guatemala! Kala was making fun of me because yesterday I had this really bright skirt I bought at the market on and a huge basket of laundry on my head when I went to the laundromat. I looked like a sunburnt gringo wanna-be Indigenous Woman. LOSER! Oh well...hope life's good in ole Scandanavian Country!

Livin da Vida Loca!

Hey y'all! Still having the most amazing time in the universe...my roommate Kala and I have really bonded recently and we play well off eachother (i.e. she doesn't get annoyed when I'm an attention hog). Today we went to a coffee finca (plantation thing) which was boring but I bought some coffee that looks really good, this Mayan cultural museum which was really cool, and this nunnery...is that the word? Convent? Whatever. It was from like the 1700's and was crazy with it's self-torture chambers and all. I forget that other countries have standing history from back then. K so you know how I love to play with elbow skin? Well I was subconsciously playing with Rusty's elbow skin at dinner the other night and got made fun of. They think I'm so wierd! Now every day I have to tell them two of "Crista's Quirks"...you can imagine it's not too hard to do. So far we've talked about my zit-popping obsession and my tendency to massage loose elbow/hand skin. Stay tuned for tomorrow's. So last night we went to a dance club place that was SO COOL...like Antigua-style but very classy. Everyone was dancing and I was just sitting on the side talking to people cuz they only salsa here and I can't do it. Anyhow I was talking to this guy from Spain named Bruno and he asked me what I like to do. This is where I discovered the depth of my loser-ness. I was like "Well...I like to study biology...and play board games." He was so funny he tried to convince me he was really into board games (although at first he thought I said war games, so we had to clear that up) too and I wasn't a loser, but he was talking about Parchesi and such, which I informed him were old-school board games. Try to imagine me trying to explain Balderdash in Spanish. Let's just say I didn't do it justice (LPA Brent!). We started working in the clinic (2x/wk during classes) but haven't really gotten to do anything yet...just learning how to fill out charts in Spanish and do the preliminary exam stuff. But I do get to wear my coat. You can imagine how pumped I am about that. One of the coolest things that's been happening is I'm realizing that it's not that different here than in the U.S. Everything we have at home they have here, it's just done a little differently. It sounds really dumb but I guess before I thought "oh gross poor Guatemala" but it's really beautiful and people are people right? I know I'm really getting into the swing of it because I haven't accidentally flushed my toilet paper for like a week! *you can't flush it here cuz it'll clog...but my poop won't? Go figure! Hope y'all are livin da vida loca up there in MN and enjoying that snow for me!(or wherever you may currently be). Dios Bendiga (God bless).

TeeTah

P.S. My snail mail address:
Crista Johnson
c/o Fernando Saravia
Apartado postal #155-El Correo
Antigua Guatemala 03001
Guatemala, C.A.

and email is still johcria@bethel.edu

Week #2: Getting into the Swing of Things!

This week has been a lot of fun (and work) so far, and things are starting to run smoothly. I feel like I live here now instead of just being a visitor (what up now!). I joined the gym and worked out yesterday (how proud are you of me! I didn't even do that at home...ever!) and today Laura and I are gonna do the pilates class. Things are a lot of fun at the house too, I'm going to mass before school with dona Elvira (the owner of the house) tomorrow, there's a new couple from England staying with us till Sunday, and they're pretty nice. Kala (my roommate) and I are in a constant prank fight with the couple across the hall. They are seriously the funniest people I've ever met. They invited us to their house on their private island in Belize! We looked at pictures, HOLY CRAP!!!! Yeah so I hope that works out at some point, but they want to sell it and Rusty's already looking at real estate here and designing a house. They say it's lonely on the island (I can imagine). Yesterday for the second half of class all the nursing majors and me and our professors went to this old folks home which was really cool. This woman kept hugging me and crying and telling me she loved me and I was such a good friend to her and I had to promise to go back. It's a government funded place and it was actually pretty nice (for Guatemala...it's all relative!) Another man was trying to get me to try and contact someone for him...a family member or something. I think I'm gonna go back one of these days because they're so sweet and have such cool stories and such little help! Well it's time for our bible study thing with the group, so off I go. Miss you all...kisses!

CR

P.S. I'll try and get some more pictures of my "family" up. Also let me know what you wanna see pictures of!

All Better and More!

No more sickies in Antigua...hoot hoot! I even had flautas yesterday so you know I'm really good. The doctor came today and gave me my last shot! Today was my first day of school and I loved it! We all have private teachers, mine's name is Lucy (in Spanish you say LuKee) and she's 22 and the cutest thing ever. Seriously beautiful. She went to med school for a few years but couldn't continue because of money, so now she's taking psych classes at the university, but she has beautiful spanish and is so knowledgeable about the healthcare stuff. She barely speaks any english, which is fine. I actually have homework today which I'm looking forward to (for real). It's so fun to learn about healthcare stuff in Spanish and am learning a lot about health care to third world countries from Lucy too. She's from this little village outside Antigua. The volcano erupted this morning and there was this huge boom, but it's not dangerous. One of these days we're gonna climb it! We're already planning some weekend trips to the beach, horseback riding, the jungle etc. There's so much to do and 4 months doesn't seem like enough time to do it all! Well anyways I'm trying to make these little entries shorter so they're easier to read for you. Thanks so much for keeping up with me. Love you all!!!!
Creest

Sick in Antigua...:(

Since the last time I've written quite a bit has happened. I woke up at about 4:30 in the morning on Friday and was vomiting and had diarrhea all day! Not my favorite day I've had here. At about 9 pm when I still wasn't getting better and couldn't keep anything down (or in) we went to the doctor's house 15 minutes away. It's cool because she's actually the one I'll be working with in the clinic, she's really sweet. Anyhow she gave me a shot for nausea and then felt my stomach. She could feel just by how my colon felt that I had a bacterial infection, so she gave me another shot and some pills to bring home. She's coming to my house tonight to give me another shot. As we were leaving her house there were a few tears...it's so hard to be away from mom and dad when you're sick. Especially when the entire doctor's visit was in Spanish and you hoped you told her everything correctly. I basically had no idea what she was giving me so I really had to trust her, which is scary. Well anyways I felt significantly better this morning and over the course of the day I was able to eat a little rice, a granola bar, drink some water, take a shower and brush my teeth. That took me about 10 hours (with naps interspersed). Everyone was so sweet when I was sick though. Lindsey (the girl who's traveling with us as a chaperone kinda) has been with me through it all and getting me what I need. I think almost everyone else in the group stopped by my house at some point yesterday and prayed for me. They're so wonderful. And Tanya and Rusty (the American couple that lives in Belize) got me some beautiful flowers. I'm so blessed to not be totally alone down here. I was reading my in my Bible today (in some of the many hours of freedom I had) in Matthew (I think) and was comforted by the passage about not worrying. It says that the birds don't worry or store up food and God takes care of them so how much more will he take care of us. (Thanks for that one Drew). The rest of my group went hiking today which I was bummed I missed out on, but I've still got 4 months to do stuff in. I wish I could write more but my stomach is starting to make unhappy noises and I think I need to get back to the house. Miss you all and love you much!!!

Tee

Here in Antigua

Just so you know, Antigua is the most wonderful city I've ever been to! My host home is GORGEOUS! Seriously it's amazing by any standards...we have a cook and a housekeeper and a woman who takes care of the grandma (who's 90 and crazy...so fun). We even have hot showers and some of the best food in Antigua! It's not like a family, which was a surprise to me, but it's so cool. There's this crazy rich couple who are from the United States but just built a house on an uninhabited island in Belize (Rusty and Tanya), a crazy man that is a compulsive liar (Chris), another man who's sweet (Stevie), a cute 16 year old girl (Gocci)who's learning english (she's from Guatemala). We eat all our meals together and we went for a walk tonight, they're the coolest people. The owner of the house is dona Elvira, and she's so sweet. Very polite, very formal, but just the sweetest thing! We've just been doing orientation stuff so far but the city is sweet. Oh and guess what? My friend Matt Hanson (from Minnesota) is studying down here independently and he is in the same host family as some of my best friends down here so we've all been hanging out a lot! How wierd is that? I'll get pictures of everything on as soon as I can. Things are going really well with my spanish and with my roommate, we're having a blast. We don't want to start classes! I don't get to go to my ministry site for another 3 weeks, but tomorrow we're going to see all the sites. I think some of the girls and I might do this pilates class at the gym right by my house...it's a really cool open air Antigua-style gym! We're also gonna take salsa classes. We have so much we want to do I'm so glad we have 4 months! My body is exhausted from all the walking and early mornings (you can imagine I love those), but I'm muy contenta!

Prayer requests: my health (of course)...it's fine now but I'm already getting worn out and I think we might climb the volcano this weekend!

That I will be able to get to know my roommate on a deeper level and learn from and with her.

That God will continue to teach me new things every day. I'm sometimes not patient enough to listen to him, if you can believe that!

That I will see God working in a way I haven't seen before.

That I will be able to understand and do what God has in store for me.

That I won't ever get mugged on the street. Not to freak you out or anything, but it happens. Fortunately Rusty's looking out for me (he's an ex-Marine who goes to the gym every day...not bad looking for a 35 year old!) and we're very careful.

Love you all and miss you!!!!! Thanks for keeping up with me...feel free to send emails too, johcria@bethel.edu I check that pretty frequently.

Moksta

Guatemala City all done!

Well today we're leaving Guatemala City and heading to our host families in Antigua! I love it here but I'm excited to get settled down and start the missions stuff. We've seen some really cool stuff here in GC though. Yesterday we went to the national cemetery, which sounds creepy but was so cool! Some of the tombs were bigger than houses and beautiful, and others were just holes in a huge stone wall. From the back of the cemetery we could see the city dump, which is the biggest one in Central America, and it broke my heart. There were vultures everywhere and people scrounging around looking for things in the dump they could sell for money. It reeked! Also when a family stops paying for their tomb, the bodies are just chucked into the ravine, so we saw a casket on the cliff all broken and rusted. We couldn't tell if there was a body in there. I fell asleep on the roof yesterday trying to read (sounds like me huh) so I have some real goofy tan lines! I'm getting better about eating beans and rice...even starting to like it! Today was really cool, we went to the slum city on the ravine where they live on $2 or less a day. The houses were made out of aluminum scraps, dirt floors, it broke my heart. We visited a guy there who grew up with Rigoberta Menchu and experienced all the horrors of the violence from the civil war...he had to escape his village and was shot and a lot of his family members were raped and killed. Some of his neighbors are garbage scroungers. We visited his house and his sister's house, which were made of concrete, and his sister's had a cool view. I took tons of pictures. He spoke to us (in Spanish) and it amazed me that he kept saying that he thanks God he's alive. We asked him if he still communicated with Rigoberta, and he said money changes people. It's better to stay poor (Mejor ser pobre). There's wild dogs everwhere and I've been taking tons of pictures of little kids. They're all so happy with so little. Well we're all packed up here at SEMILLA so it's time for lunch and then off to Antigua! Please be praying for my host family...that they will enjoy having us and that their hearts will be opened. Oh for those of you who know, the roommate situation stayed the same so that's good news! I also found out that my friend Mary Kreps is studying like a half hour away from Antigua...so I'll have two non-Bethel friends there! (Matt Hanson too). I really appreciate you reading this, it makes me feel connected and loved. Thank you so much for your prayers. I couln't be happier.